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This is more for future reference, in case I get to make one some day. I was watching a video on the TED app and noticed that the progress bar showed the elapsed time and remaining time at either end. IIRC, Windows Media Player had something like elapsed/total or elapsed/remaining on the left (or could be selected by clicking).
Which format do you think is the most intuitive? Or does it matter at all?
* elapsed / total [ === progress bar === ]
* elapsed [ === progress bar === ] remaining
* remaining [ === progress bar === ] elapsed
* any other suggestion or combination of the above
If it is on one side of the progress bar, I suppose it doesn't matter which, just consistent / compatible with any other controls.
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Unless you've actually implemented a progressbar you may not know how ridiculous the entire situation is. I didn't, before I successfully implemented a few.
There Is A Secret
Users probably wonder why they never calculate properly. There is a secret. I'm not kidding.
But, again, you have to have implemented on to really think about it.
An Example Is Required
For example suppose you are going to search through 100 random text documents for a specific string match.
The Problem
Well, most likely those documents are different byte sizes, but maybe you update the progress bar after examining each file. Now, further suppose, that the first 100 documents are only 100 bytes long, but the last document is 15MB. Then you will get 99% done very quickly and then the last one will take far longer and that last 1% will take longer than the entire 99%.
You may believe there is a way around this, but there isn't a great way -- well, at least with the Windows Forms progress bar controls.
Count All Bytes and Do Math?
So, then you think, well, I'll count all the bytes in all the files, total them up and then I'll update the progress bar in relation to the number of bytes that have been processed at each point.
However, do you see what you've done now? You've added process time to calculate how long it's going to take to do the task in an effort to only show how long it takes to do the task.
Ugh! ProgressBars. 
That's a large reason that most of them now are simply spinning circles now just to let you know something is happening.
I've been holding that rant back for years. Good to get it out. ; 
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newton.saber wrote: That's a large reason that most of them now are simply spinning circles
I call it "circle of patience"
Zen and the art of software maintenance : rm -rf *
Maths is like love : a simple idea but it can get complicated.
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I kinda like that. Gives a philosophical feel to it.
One think I like is when there is some sort of status window added, if it's something from the web I like to see bytes/sec or I think it's Kerbal which displays the name of loaded files.
That way you know that something is happening and also that it's progressing. Otherwise the circle of patience can turn in to circle of frustration.
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newton.saber wrote: that last 1% will take longer than the entire 99%.
Very similar to software projects, where the last 10 percent of the work takes more than 90 percent of time and effort
Aside, in engineering, it is said that nonlinear systems are more complex than linear ones. The progress bar implementation in most software products is nonlinear, and is therefore it becomes difficult to gauge how much time is left.
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Avijnata wrote: Very similar to software projects
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In my online update application I add an extra two seconds onto the progress because with quick downloads the bar flashes by so quickly that some users think that the update was not successful.
So I have to actually slow things down to improve the 'user experience'.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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GuyThiebaut wrote: I have to actually slow things down to improve the 'user experience'.
Haha! Great example. Yeah, progress bars, they're the best thing since splitting the atom. 
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Being accurate is only half of the story.
At least some studies show that users perceive tasks as being processed faster when the progress indicator accelerates towards the end, compared to an accurate ones.
(Somewhat consistent with "memory of experiences is dominated by the most intense moment and the end.")
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peterchen wrote: users perceive
You are correct about that and I do agree that ProgressBars are really all about user perception.
There was a version of Chrome where the circle spun quite slowly and I honestly talked to friends about how it actually seemed slower on retrieving pages but that I didn't think it was anything more than the fact that the progress was spinning slower.
Please perceive as I say, user. 
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I know all about that, considering the number of times I've installed Windows  . It's the "finishing your installation" or whatever it does at the end that takes the most amount of time. With the progress bar already at 100%.
I also remember how Vista took several minutes to start copying files. Even doing an xcopy in MSDOS took much less time 20 years ago.
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Guerrilla Coder wrote: xcopy in MSDOS took much less time 20 years ago
You are so right. There was no expectation to let the user know when things were done.
When the command-line prompt rendered again, you knew the xcopy was done.
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The best choice you provide is the first...
elapsed / total =======|.......
I'm retired. There's a nap for that...
- Harvey
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I second that. And to complete newtonµs post, also add the units of elapsed and total (time, bytes, etc...)
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I don't really understand what you mean by "elapsed time and remaining time at either end" - isn't it always like that? Have you got a screenshot you can show me, because I'm kind curious as to what you mean.
Anyway, surely that's nothing to do with the programming/functionality of the progress bar itself, just the way you use it in the GUI in conjunction with other controls? 
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
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The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
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I'd just like a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.
Me, all the time
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A, but it's not the PROGRESSBAR that shows that. The progressbar is completely the same in all cases, and there is no difference in how the progressbar controls work.
That is merely a textual representation of different time values.
I thought you meant that the look of the progress bar was somehow different in the different cases, and I couldn't really begin to figure out how that could be... 
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
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The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
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I'd just like a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.
Me, all the time
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Maybe it doesn't matter.
ux.stackexchange.com[^] would be the best place to ask. On request, you might even get evidence rather than just opinions.
Opinion: elapsed / total
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I have a little fake progress bar program.
If I want to kick back and do nothing at my desk for a while whilst waiting it look like I am waiting for the comupter I run it and a window pops up with two progress bars, one at the top going repeatedly at various speeds and with different computery looking messages that it is doing, one at the top going very slowly looking like it is keeping track of the total time for whatever the task it is doing.
Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them.
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Mega upvotes!
Respect, bro!!
That's using the programming skills as they should be used.
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Actually I was merely seeking a general consensus, but that link is pretty comprehensive!
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Those guidelines are interesting and reminded me of how much I recently hated installing Windows 10 and having the INDETERMINATE versions of progress being displayed almost at all times.
At one point during the installation of Windows 10, it was actually running a Windows Update also. Ugh!
It was very frustrating just seeing the spinning circle.
I'd almost prefer to see random text giving me famous quotes or something.
Hold on, we're installing...
Intermittently....
"Give me liberty or ..."
"Ask not what your country can do for you..."
"All jobs tend to absorb and degrade the mind..."
etc..
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Well, the more Micro$oft keeps trying to imitate Apple and Google and spy on us more and more, the more Linux desktop looks better and better.
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